keyword advice

Bidding on keywords relating popular businesses such as 'website design' is becoming very unaffordable on google with adverts now not running unless you're prepared to bid over £5.

In order to target a smaller audience I have tried variations such as

'website design in mytown' or 'web designer in my town' or 'website for specific business'

But I find that these ads still show on position 200+ presumably because they still include the popular keywords 'website design' and 'web designer'

I have limited my adverts to a specific country and region but they still get beaten to the bottom. Can I do anything to get my adverts to a more local audience at a price which doesn't compete directly with big budgets?

Why don't google gvve priority to bidders of adverts which exact match the searchers keywords or to those that match the bidders region? Until they do I can't see how small fish can possibly compete in this big pond - please enlighten me someone.

The longer a subject has been advertised on Google, the more keywords get broad matched to general terms. Anything Internet related would have been among the first subjects to have been saturated with ads.

Accounts I opened for businesses years ago once were able to buy inexpensive traffic. Now they must be willing to greatly increase bids because all their best specific keywords have been equated to the more generic keywords.

Not only does this make it highly expensive for the advertiser, it also makes it nearly impossible to find unusual products using Google's search engine. Here is one example:

I know a Mennonite family who build oval Gazebos. Many gazebo builders and sellers do not make one that shape, but Google will show all broad matched gazebo keyword ads for any Gazebo seller whether they actually offer that shape or not.

Where Yahoo (formerly Overture) has given what are basically exact match ads priority over their advanced match, Google has never done that. Obviously searchers and advertisers would be better served if they did, but they are very fond of broad match and emphasize it.

I have had people I helped tell me Google Reps told them if is best to only use broad match and not to use phrase and exact match at all.

If you want more Web design business I would not find it by using PPC ads. There are far better ways to attract clients and more demand than any designer could ever handle. Do what any site owner does who wants to attract traffic and links. Provide quality content. Write in simple terms what someone who wants a Web site needs to know.

I recommend specializing in a particular area. Be the very best at some specific niche. If you love graphics, become a graphics specialist. If you want to build entire sites, the demand is for e-commerce and make sure you're an expert in conversions and scalability.

I would recommend learning to build e-commerce sites on one of the three major platforms which I see as Yahoo Stores, Prostores (an eBay company) and Volusion. Those are the three that get recommended any time someone researches and I hear about over and over. There could be others but those three I know are popular and actually work.

Many people start building their own site on one of the above and realize they don't have the time or the skills to finish it. They are looking for designers to finish a store, build one from scratch, or improve the one they have.

There is a demand for people who understand how to do specific things to a Yahoo Store from installing templates, to designing the look and feel, to adding available features such as cross-selling. Many want someone who can improve their organic listings.

If you build stores that convert you'll have more business than you can handle. First read Designing Web Sites for Higher Sales and buy the book Don't Make Me Think recommended in the first post of that thread. Read and understand the notes in the second post.

Everybody and their brother builds Web sites. Most of them are not built in a manner that makes them usable or effective. Any designer who can build a site that converts well will be in demand.

Any designer reading this who believes they ARE building sites like those described in the book and thread mentioned above can send me their contact information so I can send them some work.

Your recommendation: "I would recommend learning to build e-commerce sites on one of the three major platforms which I see as Yahoo Stores, Prostores (an eBay company) and Volusion."

I believe these are all hosted ecommerce solutions. They may be popular (but I've never had a client who wanted any of them!)but like all hosted solutions they I expect that they have their limititations (template based, fixed operation, limited payment processors).

We provide a cusomisable ecommerce engine which we incorporate into our bespoke designs (or a clients existing website). It is very flexible and we have tailiored it for everything from online stores, to wholesale/retail solutions, to used car dealer solutions, to property portfolio systems by having the capability to turn on/off off elements such as the cart, purchase buttons etc.

"If you build stores that convert you'll have more business than you can handle."

How so? Our clients prefer to write their own copy so we can't do much more to improve conversions than offer them advice and build CSS websites which are SEO friendly.

For our own website(s), I believe we have already followed the advice of product specialisation, quality content and approprate copy with the use of 'calls to action' etc. We have great organic listings on a local basis but traffic levels are too low and I don't think it is realistic to expect large traffic volumes in such a competitve market without advertising.

perhaps I'll try overture/yahoo.

>Your recommendation: "I would recommend learning to build e-commerce sites on one of the three major platforms which I see as Yahoo Stores, Prostores (an eBay company) and Volusion."

>I believe these are all hosted e-commerce solutions. They may be popular (but I've never had a client who wanted any of them!) but like all hosted solutions they I expect that they have their limititations (template based, fixed operation, limited payment processors).

Yes, they are all hosted solutions. I agree that they have limitations. Here are my reasons for recommending them:

1. Their checkout processes work consistently. The checkout process of every advertiser I’ve ever worked with on one of these works. Many of the other e-commerce sites I’ve worked with had serious issues with buyers being able to complete a purchase. The only thing worse than a site that doesn’t convert is one that you’re paying people to visit who cannot buy.

One commonly used shopping cart I’ve tested says “there is nothing in your cart” more often than it works. I once tested three or four sites in a Web designer’s portfolio and every one of those carts failed 100% of the time. That is better than when it works most of the time. Intermittent issues are far more difficult to recognize and resolve. There are many posts online about designers being unable to get that checkout solution to work consistently. I have a client right now who is building a new store at Volusion to resolve that very issue.

2. Yahoo Stores in particular provides a ready–made source of buyers. I highly recommend anyone who designs sites or sells online read the White Paper
Marketing Experiments Yahoo Store Test.

3. Every person who already has a Yahoo store and needs help improving or finishing it is your potential client.

4. The major platforms like Yahoo will send you clients. Yahoo provides free listings in their Developer Network for designers who meet their qualification criterion.

5. I learned a very important lesson in the horse business. Famous is the most important quality in a stallion. How that applies here is this: just about everyone who wants an online store will know what a Yahoo store is because Yahoo pays for that awareness. Which do you think would work faster for you:
a. Attracting customers by saying you can help with their Yahoo store?
b. Reaching every potential customer and explaining to them what a bepoke design is and then convincing them it is as good or better than a Yahoo store? Even it is FAR better creating a market for it is like pushing a boulder up hill. [NOTE: I’m not saying it cannot be done or you shouldn’t do it. If that is your passion go for it but do recognize precisely what your goal is. If you want to do that get some input on how best to do that. I’ll be happy to discuss that with you if you wish.]

"If you build stores that convert you'll have more business than you can handle."

>How so? Our clients prefer to write their own copy so we can't do much more to improve conversions than offer them advice and build CSS websites which are SEO friendly.

Partly because people like me will send you new clients and clients ready to take their existing sites to the next level. You either need to be known online by your own writing OR be recognized by people who have readers they want to refer to you for your skills. If you’re not already buried in work and you are already able to build sites that are usable and convert then not enough people are aware of your abilities yet.

There is always more to be done on a site. By sharing what we learn with each other, my most successful clients are constantly improving their stores. My best client has a designer working on improved SEO and better cross-selling. We’re constantly creating new landing pages and soon we’ll be using Google’s free multi-variate testing system to further improve them. If your clients businesses are successful they should be telling other people about you and sending you more business.

>For our own website(s), I believe we have already followed the advice of product specialization, quality content and appropriate copy with the use of 'calls to action' etc. We have great organic listings on a local basis but traffic levels are too low and I don't think it is realistic to expect large traffic volumes in such a competitive market without advertising.

>”Perhaps I'll try overture/yahoo.”

One way to have a booming business is to help your clients have booming businesses. Perhaps all that is missing in your current business plan is referring your clients to someone who can generate traffic.

I highly recommend each person focus on what they love and want to be exceptional at and refer all other aspects of helping clients build a successful business to whoever is best at that other aspect.

Let me explain understanding PPC this way. If someone called you and said “I want to be a Web designer as good as you are now” tell me how long you think it would take for them to either figure out or have you teach them everything you currently know about Web design? How long would it be before they were as good at it as you?

The same applies to creating and managing PPC campaigns PLUS you are paying for every click. Just as anyone who is serious about having an online business must be shown that it is best to pay what it takes to create a great site, they must understand that paying for expertise is the best thing they can do. Find the best and pay them what they’re worth. It is NOT the most expensive way – it is the very LEAST expensive way.

What is your time worth? How much will you spend doing it ineffectively? How many sales and years could you have been making many times the money did you sacrifice in learning it yourself?

I am not saying it is impossible for one person to do everything themselves. I am simply pointing out that it takes far longer. Things are now changing so fast that I personally do not believe it is feasible to stay on top of everything you've already learned while you're learning the next thing.

My solution is to specialize in one discipline and know enough about the big picture to know what else can be done. Then identify the best in each of those disciplines and work with them. In this way we can create maximum effectiveness and success.